Kroc Center plans pushed back

El Campito pulls out of community center project over concern for its autonomy.

El Campito pulls out of community center project over concern for its autonomy.

May 27, 2006|JOSEPH DITS Tribune Staff Writer

SOUTH BEND -- The Salvation Army has hit a snag in its bid for $35 million from McDonald's burger fortune to build and run a huge community center. A major part of the local Kroc Center would have been the El Campito child care center, a highly regarded program that started here from grassroots 36 years ago. But El Campito and local Salvation Army leaders have decided it isn't a good fit. The child care center would have taken a $1.7 million chunk out of the total $17 million construction cost. Leaders of the effort now must think fast about what to put in its dominant place. Officials say they'll look at ideas drawn up in the exhaustive brainstorming work of community volunteers -- ideas that didn't make the cut. That will include a pool, which also would have cost about $2 million but would have broken the construction budget if both it and the child care center were built. The center would go in land currently used as the city's Alonzo Watson Park at the southwest corner of Western Avenue and Chapin Street that is next to public housing. The deadline to submit the final application for money from the Joan Kroc estate has been pushed back to Sept. 30. It already had been pushed from February to May. Kroc, late wife of the McDonald's founder, left the money to create several of these Salvation Army centers across the United States. What is 'collaboration'? The current delay centers around a misunderstanding. As they hashed out plans last fall, local leaders thought that El Campito would be able to retain its independence as it moved its entire operations into the Kroc Center. But as the winter months marched on, leaders realized that wouldn't gain approval from Salvation Army headquarters, said Patricia Phillips, project director for the local Kroc Center. Instead, El Campito would have to be owned and operated by the Salvation Army, Phillips said. El Campito Director Rosa Rickman said the program couldn't agree to that because it is "fiercely independent." "We are known for what we do, and we don't want to dilute that," she said of the program, which serves minority and low-income kids and has accreditation, meaning that it meets higher standards than licensed child care. "Our passion is to have a quality program, and that comes with independence of what we are and what we believe in. I'm not saying they would have changed that." Phillips, who communicates regularly with Salvation Army headquarters to ensure that the application is on the right track, said of the misunderstanding, "I wish that could have been more clear earlier." Salvation Army Major Brenda Herivel of Grand Rapids, Mich., who advises that city's and South Bend's bids for the Kroc grant, said the confusion came about because of different interpretations of the words "partnership" and "collaboration." She said South Bend leaders look to the Center for the Homeless as an example, where agencies bring their staff in to offer just a piece of their services, such as counseling or a clinic. But Herivel said the Salvation Army looks at partnerships differently. "The Army is saying we don't want you to be a shopping mall," she said, giving an analogy. "We want you to be a department store." For example, she said, apply the concept to a nonprofit center: The brand Tommy Hilfiger may be sold in a store using the brand's employees, but it would still be under the store's management. Local Kroc organizers have sought ideas that are progressive and "out of the box." Herivel said the Salvation Army headquarters has reason to be conservative. It has been around for 140 years and, she said, "we've been through every size and form of partnership." She spoke of recent decades when businesses dropped out of partnerships with the Army because of finances, leaving the Army responsible for debts and services. The Salvation Army is looking at the long term to ensure the Kroc Center is still viable in 75 years. It was also Joan Kroc's vision that the centers be owned and operated by the Salvation Army, said Major Ralph Bukiewicz of the Army's Midwest headquarters in Illinois. He oversees the projects to build a Kroc Center in 10 Midwestern communities. None have been approved yet; none have been denied, he said. Six have received extensions on their application deadlines. Herivel is optimistic about South Bend's chances. The other partners Given the experience with El Campito, Herivel said, the Salvation Army will review the handful of other formal partnerships that make up the South Bend proposal. None of them were looking to move entirely into the Kroc Center. For example, the Boys and Girls Club of St. Joseph County would open another one of its satellite sites at the center, said Director Rich Payton, who added that he still is "trying to put my arms around" how this partnership would work. He believes this could be good model. The Robinson Community Learning Center would help to start up violence prevention and tutoring programs that the Kroc Center staff could run over the long haul, Director Jay Caponigro said. The YMCA of Michiana would bring the concept "Home Team," using both its and the Kroc's staff, to help teenagers and their parents be more commited to school, said Director Kirby Falkenburg. Memorial Hospital would help launch a math and science academy, using the entertaining style of Memorial's HealthWorks Kids' Museum. But the hospital, pledging funds and long-term support, hasn't decided how it would be staffed, said Colleen Sweeney, who runs Memorial's innovation school. What next? Now what will go in the space vacated by childcare? There isn't time to find another high-quality child-care center, Phillips said. There is also no time to come up with something entirely new, she said, so organizers will cull the many ideas produced in dozens of committee meetings. Phillips said the local effort will bring in a pool consultant to look at the feasibility of installing a pool. Some argued the pool was important for racially diverse inner-city kids to learn how to swim, a skill they typically lack compared with whites. Others didn't see the pool as vital. For now, Phillips said, "I want to get this off the starting block." El Campito also passed up an invitation to bring just pieces of its program because of the same concerns for its independence, Rickman said. The Kroc Center would have solved El Campito's eventual need for a new home as its circa-1925 building on Thomas Street costs money for ongoing repairs. The center also would have boosted El Campito's capacity from about 50 children to nearly 100 and added care for infants. Both El Campito and the Salvation Army said they are open to working together after the center is built and that there is no bitterness. Phillips emphasizes gratitutude for the community's help thus far. She recently has been communicating with institutions who had pledged large grants to help the project, some of whom would give only if child care was in the plan. The Salvation Army requires that the local effort raise a matching $8.75 million.Staff writer Joseph Dits: jdits@sbtinfo.com (574) 235-6158